374 ON THE EXTERNAL CHARACTERS OF MONGOOSES. 



this species at least makes use of the secretion in the same way 

 as the Skunk. I have never seen this species alive, and have 

 never noticed any Mongoose practise the habit ; but I have seen 

 the secretion of a dead Marsh-Mongoose {A. pahidinosus) issue, 

 under pressure of the gland, in a narrow jet as if propelled by a 

 squirt ; and since Mr. W. L. Sclater states that this animal is 

 able to diffuse a strong odour described as " sweet-sickening " 

 from its anal glands, I suspect it is endowed with the same 

 power as M. urva. To me the scent of the secretion in ji . palv,- 

 dinosus is very nauseous. 



The External Genitcdia. 



In the male the glans penis is always short and smooth, and 

 emerges close in front of the scrotum as in the Felidse and 

 Nandinia. The orifice of the urethra is apparently always a 

 large and elongated slit opening in the middle of the underside 

 of the glans and not at its tip. The glans is laterally compressed, 

 usually much longer than wide, attenuated towards the apex, and 

 carries a bone or " baculum " which reaches the tip. In Suricata, 

 liowever, it is markedly piriform and considerably expanded 

 proximally, so that its width nearly equals its length (text-fig. 9, 

 G, H, I,K). 



The vulva is only a short distance below, or in front of, the 

 inferior edge of the anal sac. The naked area is sometimes 

 broadly continuous with that of the sac, as in Bdeogcde 23uiscc 

 (text-fig. 9, F), sometimes connected with it by a narrow naked 

 tract, as in Ariela fasciata and Crossarehits ohscurus (text-fig. 10, 

 G),- or separated therefrom by a narrow tract of hair, as in 

 Helogcde undulata (text-fig. 10, A). 



In the female of Siuricata Mivart drew attention to the 

 presence of a perineal swelling just below the anal sac, and 

 compared it to a small scrotum (text-fig. 10, H). A somewhat 

 similar swelling is present in the female of Mungos smithii 

 I examined. This swelling occupies the position of the perfume- 

 gland of the Civets and Genets. Since Mivart did not dissect 

 the swelling in Suricata, it may be recorded that it appears to 

 consist of fatty and not of glandular tissue. It is, in my oj)inion, 

 exactly compaiable to the scrotum-like excrescence so often 

 noticed in female Hysenas and to the apparently similar structure 

 observed by Lbnnberg * in a female Cryptoprocta. Since the 

 Mongooses resemble the Hyfenas and Cryptoprocta in possessing 

 a large anal sac, and have been compared with them in other 

 respects, the remarkable difl:erences in the structure of the penis 

 in the three groups must be borne in mind. In the Hysenas 

 (and Proteles) this organ is very long, fleshy, pendulous, and the 

 glans is short and boneless. In Cryptop?'octa the glans is ex- 

 ceedingly long, copiously armed with strong spicules, provided 

 with a long bone, and emerges a long way in front of the 

 scrotum, 



* Bill. Svenst. Vet.-Akad. Handl. xxviii. Afd. iv. no. 3, 1902. 



